An unsentimental elegy to the American West, "Sweetgrass" follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montana’s breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.

  • Produced by Ilisa Barbash
  • Recorded by Lucien Castaing-Taylor
  • Sound Editing and Mix / Ernst Karel
  • Colorist / Patrick Lindenmaier
  • 101 min, 35mm, 2009

  • "The ecstasy is ours, in contemplating these ravishing images."

    — The Guardian

  • "The images, including sheep on the move up near vertical hills, are remarkable, the landscape spectacular, the unsentimental account of back-breaking, backside-aching work impressive."

    — The Observer

  • "The definition of niche, but one dedicated to some of the highest ideals of film: it brings us information from a place we’ve never been, and with a rapturous innocence."

    — Financial Times

  • New Yorker, Movies' Pick 2010
  • New York Times, Critics' Pick 2010
  • Village Voice, Film Pick 2010
  • Washington Post, Critics' Pick 2010
  • Best Feature, 2010 Play-Doc Festival, Spain
  • Der Tagesspiegel 2009 'Top' Film of Berlinale
  • Audience Award, 2010 Environmental Film Fest, FL
  • Audience Award, 2010 Punto de Vista, Pamplona, Spain
  • Artistic Excellence Award, 2010 Big Sky Film Festival, MT
  • Best International Doc, 2009 Astra Film Festival, Romania
  • Official Selection, Berlin Film Festival
  • Official Selection, New York Film Festival
  • Official Selection, AFI Fest
Sweetgrass Movie Poster. Text on poster: Sweetgrass: the last ride of the american cowboy. 'A one-of-a-kind experience' - Ronnie Scheib, Variety. 'a really intimate, beautifully shot examination of the connection between man and beast...' - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times